The HCAP Story

HCAP exists because local employers were seeking ways to reduce healthcare costs. They wanted better access to quality group health insurance at affordable rates and healthcare providers committed to helping the small businesses in their communities.

HCAP's beginnings are unconventional. The Hospital Council of East Central Michigan (HCECM), representing 20 hospitals, at that time, thought it prudent to survey the region's businesses on healthcare. With the help of local chambers of commerce, almost 900 companies returned the surveys. The results were conclusive: small and medium-sized firms were seeing sizable increases in health insurance premiums combined and felt they could do little to control this growth.

Emphatically, businesses wanted hospitals’ help, especially in creating innovative programs that would give companies greater control of their own health insurance costs. For example, firms believed that health promotion and wellness programs are effective in reducing healthcare costs, but few had the means to put them in place.

The Blue Ribbon Committee on Health Care and Business was formed in 1991 to find solutions best suited to the east central Michigan market. Comprised of business and health leaders, the committee arrived at a single major recommendation: investigate an innovative health insurance pool that will give businesses greater control over health benefits design and management and therefore healthcare costs. Hospitals and community foundations underwrote the research to assess the insurance options best suited to local businesses’ needs.

The Blue Ribbon Committee then formed HCAP’s Board of Trustees in 1994 reflecting the cooperation between employers and healthcare leaders who volunteer to guide the corporation. In the fall of 2016, HCAP became a wholly owned subsidiary of HCECM.

Business Partners and Customers

HCAP partners with third party administrators (TPA) to provide alternative choices to employers when seeking healthcare coverage for their employees. HCAP has arrangements with companies who can provide self-funded, shared funding, fully insured, and individual benefit plans. These arrangements also provide access to state and national networks.

HCAP is partnered with ASR/Physicians Care in Grand Rapids.

HCAP contracts with hospitals through individual hospital participation agreements. Physicians’ contracts are individual contracts, or can be through a physician organization or physician hospital organization agreement.

HCAP Products

Employer groups can select a plan that works best for their organization size. HCAP has made arrangements with third party administrators for:

Self-funded plans for groups of 25+ employees.

Shared funding plans for groups as small as 15 employees.

HCAP Services

HCAP provides the following services:

Review provider credentials and reimbursement rates.

Communication between the physician office and third party administrators for claims inquiries that need special attention.

Superior customer service to network practitioners, hospitals and employer groups.

Distribution (by request) of directories and provider updates for employees.